


Lotus in the fish pond

by Quente



Category: Free!
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi, The gayest het fic ever
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-30
Updated: 2014-04-01
Packaged: 2018-01-17 15:13:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1392367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quente/pseuds/Quente
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gou has one overprotective brother, three overprotective brother-figures, and one mischievous classmate who's really on her side, honest. That's obviously why Nagisa gave her some yaoi manga one day...</p><p>~</p><p>"The rest of us read stuff like this, so you might as well too."</p><p>"All of you? All FOUR of you?" Gou said, eyes widening in surprise. She'd figured it out about Nagisa and Rei, who wouldn't? But Haru and Makoto seemed about as sexual as goldfish swimming around in a bowl. Given the amount of time they'd spent with each other, surely their behavior together would seem a little more...aware of each other...if they were actually gay?</p><p>"Five," Nagisa corrected, "If we include your brother."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Carefully shaded out

Gou sat at the low table in the Iwatobi swimming club office staring down at the empty sheet of paper in front of her. An ink-laden brush was in her hand, and she took a steadying breath, ready to use the fluid motion of her arm to stroke down the latest inspirational sign for the midsummer invitational tournament. She raised her arm to begin the stroke, and then paused. Her mind wasn’t in it today. Instead, she felt vaguely dissatisfied, and thoughts of a different swim team floated through her mind; especially a set of strong legs descending from the smallest pair of speedos on the planet.

Just then, to further interrupt her calligraphy, Nagisa burst into the office.

Ah well. Gou carefully set down the brush.

“Look what I have,” Nagisa said in his best excited voice, waving a luridly colored book in the air. “It’s from one of my older sisters -- I found it in her room.” He ran to Gou’s side and flipped it open to a random page, and Gou caught a glimpse of tangled, naked limbs and a lot of different body parts. 

She leaned closer, intrigued. “What --”

Close on Nagisa’s heels was Rei.

"Gou-san wouldn't want to see that!" Rei cried, snatching the manga out of Nagisa's hands. "How could you carry something like this into the office?"

"Eh? Why are you thinking about that when you could be reading something interesting?" Nagisa responded, snitching the manga back and flipping it open again. "Ooooh. Look, I like the expression on his face right --"

"NAGISA-KUN!" Rei's voice was full of recrimination and embarrassment, and Gou watched as Nagisa bit his lip, clearly feeling that vague guilt that it seemed only Rei could inspire in him. "Gou-san is sitting RIGHT HERE!" With that, Rei snatched the book back and buried it deeply in his school bag.

Gou was sitting right there, and she HATED the fact that Rei had taken away the book as soon as she was about to see something good. "But it's just manga," she said, also hating the fact that she had to play the innocent. It was really the only acceptable response, even if she’d thought a fair bit about _sex_ before. "It's only drawings..."

"Not the sort that good girls would want to see," Rei said firmly, and picking up his bag, stalked out of the swim club's office.

Gou sighed, leaning back far enough to flop onto the floor. "How do you guys know what I want to see and what I don't?" She grumbled, picking up something to throw at Nagisa out of sheer irritation.

Nagisa caught the flying Iwatobi-chan in mid air. "You sound frustrated, Gou-chan!" He said, his expression transforming into the usual mixture of sweetness and utter mischief. "Luckily that wasn't the only book I found."

"Oh?" Gou sat up immediately, smoothed her skirt, and scooted closer.

Nagisa dug another manga out of his bag, this one with a cover promising all kinds of romance, but especially ones between boys. The two men on the cover were dead ringers for some boys from her class, but the boys in her class would never be touching each other so intimately.

"So," Gou said hesitantly, "So this is ... gay?"

"Yep," Nagisa said cheerfully, depositing it into her hands. "The rest of us read stuff like this, so you might as well too."

"All of you? All FOUR of you?" Gou said, eyes widening in surprise. She'd figured it out about Nagisa and Rei, who wouldn't? But Haru and Makoto seemed about as sexual as goldfish swimming around in a bowl. Given the amount of time they'd spent with each other, surely their behavior together would seem a little more...aware of each other...if they were actually gay?

"Five," Nagisa corrected, "If we include your brother. Makoto denies it of course, but I've seen what's under his bed."

Gou turned the same shade as her hair at that particular detail, and decided that it was best to NOT open the book just then. "So this kind of thing is what you all ... want?" Her voice went slow, and her emotions were suddenly conflicted. It wasn't enough that all of the swim team considered themselves her protective platonic brother-figures, no, they all had to be gay too. She laughed, a bit shakily. "It's going to be amazing if I emerge from this school with any sense of self-worth at all."

"AWWW -- is that what you're worried about, Gou-chan?" Nagisa's arms snaked around her, and he squeezed hard. "I'll go out with you! You're very pretty and have a great figure and I promise I won’t lay a finger on you!"

"But that's just the issue," Gou sighed, carefully detaching herself from Nagisa's arms. "None of you will lay a finger on me. I see everyone half-naked every day, and the most you do is say 'hello' and 'what exercises are we doing?' and 'do my jammers accentuate my gluteal muscles?' and...sometimes...sometimes it's really disheartening!"

Nagisa frowned. This was really an issue, but he had absolutely no idea how to solve it. "Should we all prove that you're attractive, somehow? I can think of a way, I promise!"

"Nagisa-kun..." Gou said as seriously as she could, "Please, absolutely not." The thought of Nagisa planning something to prove that she was attractive filled her with a toe-curling terror. There was a good chance it would involve Rei and quite possibly Iwatobi-chan, and result in Gou being scarred for the rest of her school life. "It's okay. It doesn't bother me very much, but sometimes...just sometimes...it might be nice to just..."

"Find a boyfriend?" Nagisa asked softly. "Hm."

Gou didn't like the tone of that "hm," but she couldn't give him a definitive no, because just then Haruka walked in.

Haru's eyes descended to her hands and obviously saw what she held, but he made no mention of it. "Rin texted me about joint practice."

Gou brightened just a little, shifting to hide the book behind her back. "Ah, yes. I've got it scheduled for the day after tomorrow." Finally, a chance to hang out with a (possibly) heterosexual swimmer! The only problem was, she'd be there with her four surrogate brothers AND her actual brother. Gou sighed a vast and hopeless sigh.

Nagisa was still looking at her, though, and this time his eyes narrowed just a little.

"Ah. The day after tomorrow. Of course."

"Nagisa-kun...remember, no plans!"

Nagisa just smiled.

~

That night, Gou locked the door to her bedroom and pulled out the manga. It was a sweet, straight-forward love story, but when most of her manga stopped at kissing, this one started there and kept on going. The two boys had to pretend to be distant due to their same-sex relationship and various issues with school rivalries and sports teams, but somehow they managed to meet up and make out. 

Then it went beyond making out. There was a carefully shaded-out region where their sex organs should be, but Gou realized with a growing sense of horror what was actually happening. She hid her blushing cheeks behind her hand when she realized that it was all about their bottoms -- and who did what to which bottom -- and the other things that happened to get people ready to take it into their … a second later she put down the manga and texted Nagisa.

[I can’t believe it! I hope none of you have done this! Isn’t it totally gross?]

[ah, you read the manga.....]

[Nagisa-kun! Promise me you’ll never do anything like that!]

[ummm...yeah, about that...sorry, mom’s calling me for dinner. cu tomorrow!]

That wasn’t quite a no, and Gou tossed the manga across the room. No, no, no, no, no. Not their _bottoms_. And besides, who would do it to whom? Would her brother want to have … Haru, or Makoto, do that to him? Or … would Makoto lie around letting someone stick their fingers in his… and… REI AND NAGISA? 

Gou’s brain imploded, and she curled into a ball on her bed, tugging a pillow up over her face.

Just then her phone rang. It was Makoto. Gou stared at the number, wondering if Nagisa ratted her out. Should she even answer? She couldn’t imagine having that kind of conversation with Makoto.

Setting her phone to vibrate, she hid it deep in her book bag.

She wasn’t sure she could face them again, ever.

~

Of course, she had to anyway.

~

The second Gou and her teammates showed up at the side of the pool, Rin was on them like gnats on mackerel.

“Yo,” Rin said to the boys, turning to give them each a hard scrutiny. “You’ve been following my workout routines,” he grunted at Makoto. “I can see the improvement in your obliques.” Rin reached out a finger and brought it down the side of Makoto’s bare stomach, to the edge of his jammers.

Was it just Gou’s imagination, or was that a little flirtatious? She hated Nagisa for telling her that every one of them was gay, because now she couldn’t un-see it. Perfectly innocent touches seemed full of meaning, just because she was suspicious of them. She glared at her brother for potentially wanting to do things to Makoto’s bottom, and glanced at the other boys to see how they were taking this touch.

Haru looked completely unconcerned, but he was staring at the pool with such longing that Gou suspected Nagisa of lying to her about his choice of pornography.

Rei was busy muttering to himself, something about the temperature of the water, the number of swimmers, and ‘ambient body heat.’ No, surely he wasn’t.

Nagisa was staring around the facility with a strangely calculating look, one that filled Gou with a certain amount of fear about his future actions. What could he be planning? Hopefully it wasn’t anything involving locking her up alone with Mikoshiba or some used-up plot device like that...but it probably was, judging from the way he was staring at the Samezuka office.

“Hey sis. Did you give them the diet recommendations I emailed?”

Gou nodded. “Haruka-senpai already threw his away.”

Rin snorted, and then reached over to thwap Haru’s bottom. Gou’s brow furrowed, and she watched as Haru jumped and gave Rin a shove. “Oy.”

That was a little gay, she admitted to herself. At least, it was a lot more gay than Haru ever acted around Makoto. But then…

“I’ll defeat you totally for that,” Haru said, and a second later, they were both diving into the pool.

Gou turned to Nagisa. “You’re wrong. You’ve got to be. Nobody is _like that_ here except for you.”

“Eh?” Makoto turned toward her, his face innocent-eyed and questioning.

Gou blushed at the look, feeling a little guilty for avoiding the phone call several nights earlier. “It’s nothing.”

Nagisa laughed, however. “Come with me, Gou-chan, now that two of your five brothers are out of the way…”

Feeling a bit of trepidation, Gou followed Nagisa toward the Samezuka office…

~

Ten minutes later, two teams paused to watch a swimsuit-clad Gou chase Nagisa around the outer edge of the Samezuka pool.

Mikoshiba stepped out of the office, crowbar still in his hand, face glowing like a sunset. “No running around the pool!” he called over to them. “IWATOBI! Shape up, or we won’t invite you again!”

“That’s okay by me,” Gou shouted back, and with a burst of speed, shoved Nagisa hard enough that he flailed over into the deep end with an enormous splash.

“I SAID I’M SORRYYYYY ~” Nagisa cried out as he plummeted.

“I can’t believe I fell for that,” Gou responded from the edge of the pool, hands on her hips, not realizing that the entire pool full of boys was now looking at her with wide eyes.

Gou was in a bathing suit. It was a speedo one-piece, but it accentuated her body and left nothing much to the imagination. She wasn’t a small girl, and the suit did nothing to hide it.

Three protective swim-team members and one big brother immediately lost their shit.

“Nagisa-kun,” Rei said, his voice terribly disappointed.

“Haru -- towel!” Rin growled, climbing out of the pool and catching the towel Haru tossed in his direction. “Makoto! Shirt!” Rin caught the shirt that Makoto swiftly dug from his bag. Then he raced to his sister, glaring at every single Samezuka team member who happened to be looking. “What are you guys staring at? Get swimming!”

“Rin --” Mikoshiba called, “You get swimming too!”

Rin ignored his captain for the moment, however, and threw the shirt over Gou’s head. Makoto’s shirt was a dress on her, and so cute that from across the pool, Makoto felt his heart thump just a little. It was like seeing a kitten in a dog collar, and Makoto was a sucker for cuteness like that… 

“Ow.” Makoto huffed as a wet elbow impacted his side.

“You too. Don’t stare at Rin's sister.” Haru’s eyes slanted sideways to meet Makoto’s and the other boy blushed. 

“I -- she just reminded me of a -- Okay, I get it. Sorry.”

“So why are you showing off a Samezuka swimsuit in front of all these men?” Rin asked, wrapping the towel around Gou’s hips.

“Nagisa-kun said that they were picking Samezuka women’s team suit sizes, and asked me to try them out as a favor to Mikoshiba-buchou. Just as soon as I got on the suit, Mikoshiba-buchou and I were locked in the team office…”

“WHAT? I’m gonna kill Nagisa --”

“No, it’s more like Mikoshiba-buchou was totally prepared. Even though I was already in the suit, he didn’t look at me at all. Instead, he got out his crowbar and pried open the window, and…”

Rin removed Mikoshiba from his mental list of people to kill. “Wait, crowbar?”

“Apparently it’s common for people to lock each other into the office, so there’s a crowbar stowed in there just in case.”

Rin sighed. Of course. His school was that kind of ridiculous place. Still. He turned and met Mikoshiba’s eyes, giving him the slightest grudging nod of thanks.

Mikoshiba gave him an absent-minded wave, but he looked a bit troubled, which got Rin curious.

“Are you sure that’s all that happened in there with Buchou?”

“Ah -- yeah.” Gou was blushing now, and feeling amazingly irritated too. After that kind of stunt, nobody was going to let her near him, not even for a chat. “Anyway. Go swim, he’s staring at you.” Gou sighed, clutching the towel close, and headed back toward Makoto.

The second she got to Makoto’s side, she realized he was also blushing, and looking away from her, too. Hm, maybe he was still annoyed at her?

“About that call the other night…”

“Ah, that,” Makoto said, turning to walk them away from where Haru and Rei stood. “Well. Nagisa texted me something odd about a certain manga, so I just wanted to make sure that you weren’t getting the wrong idea.”

“Ah.” Gou’s cheeks were brighter red than Makoto’s now. “I think I did get the wrong idea. At least, none of that seemed like a good idea!”

Makoto fell silent then, and Gou could tell that she was about to get one of those gentle Makoto lectures that left people feeling emotionally devastated. She’d listened to her brother going on about those before. Makoto always had a way of cutting straight to the heart of things. She braced for it.

“I think -- what’s most important --” Makoto spoke hesitantly, as if choosing his words carefully, “Is that it isn’t about the sex. You know? It’s about love. And, well, if you’re a man, you have to work with the body you’re given. But what’s more important than who puts what where is...is the amount of heart in it.”

“Makoto-senpai. Does everyone really think that way?” At least his lecture was a lot less painful than she'd feared.

Makoto shot Gou a sideways, slightly troubled look. “Well, no.”

Gou sighed. “Well. You’re right, though. I can’t understand it, but it’s not really my problem. I just feel sad that you guys have to --”

“Kou-chan,” Makoto was chuckling now, his eyes turning from slightly melancholy to totally amused. “Seriously though, there’s no need to feel sad about it. Anyway, about the other reason I called you. Should we schedule another island training camp?”

~

 _To be honest_ , Gou wrote in her diary that night, _I did have an interesting moment locked into the office with Mikoshiba-buchou. He was still in his Speedos, and I’d just changed into my swim suit. He came over to ask what I was doing in there, and in that moment before we realized we’d been set up by Nagisa-kun, he really looked at me. All over me. As if thinking I’d put on a swim suit just for him. His eyes were so warm and happy for a second, they warmed me allll up._


	2. No more pixelation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gou gets caught up in the lives of her friends, and between Rin worrying about Makoto and Rei worrying about Nagisa, she can't find a way to resolve her own desire. 
> 
> Also, I accidentally answered two kink meme prompts: Rei/Nagisa and spanking, and Makoto getting himself off.
> 
> ~
> 
> _Gou hesitated. There was something incredibly awkward that she needed to ask her brother. Better now than never._
> 
> _“So which one of you is dating Haru-senpai, anyway? Is it you or Makoto-senpai?”_
> 
> _“WHAT KIND OF QUESTION IS -- Now why would you think to ask that? We’re ALL GUYS.”_
> 
> _Gou breathed a sigh. “Okay. So you aren’t gay after all?”_
> 
> _Silence for a moment, and then, “W-well...I...I mean.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOW IS THIS HET FIC SO GAY? I DON'T EVEN KNOW.
> 
> And oops, I added a third chapter.
> 
> Oh, someone asked why I keep ****ing out sex words. It's because I'm emulating the thoughts of a cute girl in a shoujo manga, who couldn't possibly say something like "anal" even to herself. :D

Gou paused at the school gates, reaching for her phone. It struck her that her brother had texted her something vague and worried about their plans for another island swim camp, and Gou had yet to respond to it. It went something like:

[Are u guys serious? Makoto almost drowned last time, this can’t be good]

That was a fair point, and Gou figured she should step in and ask Makoto before it blew up into a team-wide worryfest with Haru and Rin acting like Makoto’s doting parents. Maybe Makoto actually wanted to face his fears, as opposed to her brother, who seemed to think that overwhelming, misguided ambition was the only way to deal with pain and loss.

Ah well. But searching through her bag, Gou realized that she’d left her phone back in the swim club office. She sighed, pivoted, and trudged back in the direction she’d come. It wasn’t like anyone was waiting for her at the gate, although the thought of that made her smile a little. 

What would it be like to see a tall, strong figure in a white gakuran standing next to the gate, smiling at her from under that shock of red hair? Gou bit back a little grin, feeling her heart warm up again. She really, really enjoyed seeing Mikoshiba’s smile, and wondered if she’d ever get to see it again, at close range…

The door was locked, and she opened it up, heading into the office to look for her phone. It wasn’t anyplace obvious, so she thought back through her day...and then realized that she’d gone into the storage room to fish out an old banner to adorn the front of the club. She headed back into the closet to look around.

Rummaging through the piles of old scrap books and boxes of Iwatobi-chan figurines, she suddenly heard the door open and close, and steps enter the office.

“Here, Rei-chan? Seriously?” Nagisa’s voice, sounding strangely anxious.

“Here. We can hardly do it in our homes, can we? Now, over to the bench.” Rei’s voice sounded unexpectedly stern.

“But Reiiiii-chaaan! I don’t think it’s fair to do this to me when you KNOW I had the best of intentions,” Nagisa protested.

Then Gou heard a rustling and a startled gasp, as if Nagisa had been picked up and carried somewhere. 

“Rei!”

Then she heard a thump, and more rustling, and Nagisa’s voice seemed oddly breathless.

“Rei-chan! I don’t know if I can handle that kind of --”

“Nagisa-kun. You promised that if there was anything I thought you were doing wrong, you’d let me punish you like this.”

Gou’s eyes went wide. Punish? What? What were they going to… She thought about heading out to stop them, but realized that her phone was still lost somewhere. She held still, biting her lip, uncertain.

“I did promise,” Nagisa said, his voice strangely subdued. “Go ahead and get it over with, then. Here, I’ll help.” Another rustling noise, and another sound, almost like a low rumble of approval. Rei?

“Over my lap, then.”

“Fine! Get going already!”

Then came the sound of a slap, and a strange noise. It was halfway between a whimper and a groan, and Gou’s brow furrowed.

“Nagisa-kun. What is it that you will never do again?” Another crisp smacking noise, as if a hand was striking bare skin. 

“I will never make our dear manager Gou-chan wear a swim suit in front of the Samezuka team again. Ooohhhhwwwwww! H-how many more of these?”

Another slap, another moan, and then a moment of silence.

“Nagisa-kun. You-your body is…getting like this…all of a sudden.”

There was more silence for a moment, and then another gasping moan, but this one seemed to be much less about pain.

Gou found that her face was flaming hot. She crouched down among the blank-eyed boxes of Iwatobi-chan figurines, torn between wanting to die of embarrassment and wanting to take a good hard look out the closet door.

“S-so? My pants are down and you’re playing with my --”

“Oh? Interesting. I see that if I strike you in just this manner, you --” The sound of a loud smack “-- seem to react.”

“R-rei-chan -- I’m going to -- nnh -- kill you after this --”

“I still seem to have the upper hand, though, Nagisa-kun.” Another loud smack, followed by a moan, this one longer and more drawn out.

“Nagisa-kun…” This time, Rei’s voice sounded breathy and warm, and the sounds of fabric and rustling and shuffling replaced the slaps.

“MMmh -- better take my pants off the rest of the --”

“S-straddle my lap, Nagisa-kun --”

“Good idea!”

Then, Gou heard nothing but increasingly loud breathing and the wet sounds of lip meeting lip, ramping up to --

Of course, it was just then that her phone rang with her brother’s special music, a certain loud rap song he’d liked from Australia. It wasn’t subtle, and it rang out through the lip-smacking noises like a claxon.

In the profound silence that followed, Gou picked up the phone and answered it, heading out of the closet with burning cheeks.

“Hello?” NOT looking as she stepped out. Okay, it was impossible not to look.

“Sis,” Rin said. “About that camp.”

“Sorry,” Gou said to the two boys frozen in place on the bench. “My brother called. See you tomorrow!” Turning to quick-step out of there.

“Yeah -- what’s up about the camp?”

As Gou left the office, she heard Nagisa’s burst of laughter behind her, coupled with Rei’s deep groan of anguish.

“I’ll never be able to look at Gou-san again!”

“Now who gets to punish whom for taking away some innocence?”

“No -- Nagisa-kun -- PLEASE not waxing!”

Gou was torn between painful secondhand embarrassment and laughter. The few moments she’d looked at them, she concluded that gay sex was also about simply kissing while your **** touched the other guy’s **** and you both ****. Well, that didn’t seem so bad. At least it wasn’t ****!

“What the hell was that?” Rin asked.

“Nagisa-kun and Rei-kun were discussing … training regimes.”

“Somehow I don’t buy that, but whatever. Anyway. Makoto can’t be forced to swim in the ocean again. Why are you guys listening to him? He’s full of misguided notions about what’s good for everyone else, especially Haru, and probably thinks Haru wants to be at the beach or some shit like that.”

“So why are you calling me and not Makoto-senpai?”

“...Because, there are some things I can’t talk to him about, and one of them is Haru. If I bring up Haru, he gets all defensive and weird and…” Rin sighed.

Oh God. “You sound like you’re in a shoujo manga,” Gou said. “But if you want me to talk to Makoto-senpai for you, I was planning on doing it anyway. Oh, by the way…” 

Gou hesitated. There was something incredibly awkward that she needed to ask. Better now than never.

“So which one of you is dating Haruka-senpai, anyway? Is it you or Makoto-senpai?”

“WHAT KIND OF QUESTION IS -- Now why would you think to ask that? We’re ALL GUYS.”

Gou breathed a sigh. “Okay. So you aren’t gay after all?”

Silence for a moment, and then, “W-well...I...I mean.”

Gou listened to her brother stumbling around for a second, and then knew with a great certainty exactly what was going on.

“Mhm. Okay. Listen, brother, you don’t need to answer that question -- to me. But it sounds like you should answer it for yourself.”

“Who are you to give me that kind of -- ! Anyway, a little girl like you shouldn’t be thinking about -- ! I’m gonna kill Nagisa for -- !”

“Okay, brother. Love you. I’ll talk to Makoto-senpai.” And with that, Gou hung up.

~

In the days that followed, it was strangely difficult to get Makoto alone to ask him about the training camp. It seemed that his class was holding examinations, and because of that, he studied in his classroom during lunch instead of joining the rest of them on the roof to eat.

Not only that, but apparently Makoto’s phone was dead due to a Haru-related accident.

Nagisa sat beside her on the roof that day, chewing his melon bread, and relayed the story. It was just the two of them because Rei was still horribly mortified at the thought of running into her, and Haru also had exams.

“You know how Haru-chan tends to strip whenever he’s near a body of water large enough for a human to soak in? Well, they were in that one mall that has the indoor koi pond…”

“Uh oh.”

“Yep. And Mako-chan wasn’t able to hold him back at all, this time. Either Haru is getting stronger, or he was deprived of water for too long, because he basically dragged Mako-chan into the fountain with him, cellphone and all.”

“Was Makoto-senpai annoyed? I can’t imagine that, somehow, even if his cell broke!”

“I can’t imagine that either! Haru-chan would be so dead if it was my phone!”

They laughed, and Nagisa quieted down, looking introspective for a moment. “Hey, Gou-chan, did we traumatize you? Rei thinks we did.”

Ah, right, the enormous mutually masturbating pink elephants in the corner. “Nagisa-kun, actually you de-traumatized me. After reading that yaoi, I thought it was all about forcing things into people’s … and doing _this_ and _that_ with their … but it seems like there’s a lot more to it than that, and you two looked like you were just having fun? I mean, aside from the spanking.”

Nagisa actually blushed, clapping a hand over Gou’s mouth. “D-don’t ever mention that again! It’ll ruin my hard-earned reputation as a tough guy!”

Gou stared at him. “You have a reputation like that?!”

Nagisa pouted. “Hmph. Never mind. I was GOING to share my chocolate bread with you but NOT ANY MORE.”

“Nagisa-kun, anyway. Thank you for all of this. You didn’t need to get punished for my sake. It’s been...kind of fun. Except that it all backfired because I freaked out, and I’ll never get a chance to talk to Mikoshiba-buchou alone again…” Gou couldn’t help the hint of mournfulness in her voice. Whenever she thought of that smile…

“Awwww, Gou-chan! You’ll see him again. I’ll make sure of that.”

She shot Nagisa a suspicious look. “You don’t get to lock us up in the Iwatobi storage closet.”

“...Oh. Well. I mean, I’ll figure out something else, then.”

~

The horrible part was that Rin KEPT sending her texts. 

[Did you talk to Makoto yet? Did you?]

[NO you annoying guy quit harassing me! Makoto-senpai has exams and he’s busy. ]

[Quit procrastinating! This is important!]

[ANNOYING BROTHER IS ANNOYING]

Finally Gou got so bothered by Rin’s texting that she scheduled Makoto for extra practice, just so he’d have to stay later than the rest of the guys, and she’d finally have a moment to be alone with him.

Finally the other boys finished up and went home, even Haru, with a bit of prodding and heavy-handed hints that he absolutely wasn’t wanted.

Then Gou waited.

After Makoto completed his extra laps, he got out of the pool groaning, and disappeared into the boy’s showers.

Gou kept waiting. And kept waiting more for him to finish his shower. And then, staring at the clock, realized he’d been in there for a good fifteen minutes. That seemed excessive for showering and getting dressed, so she got up and stood by the door. 

“Hello?” Gou’s voice echoed into the locker room.

No answer, but the shower kept going. This frightened Gou a little. What if she’d exhausted him so much after all of those exams and all of that lap practice that she’d made him pass out in the shower? 

Fear compelled her to take a step into the men’s showers, and then another, until she could see the row of lockers in front of her and the wide open shower over to the left.

Makoto was in the shower, but he wasn’t passed out. That was good. Gou flushed a little to see his naked back, and turned to leave and wait for him like a good girl.

...But then she realized that Makoto wasn’t just enjoying the feeling of water running over his head. No, the muscles of his right arm flexed as he slowly ran his hand up and down his ****, leaning against the wall with his other hand. His head was bent, his eyes were closed, and the water ran over his hair and down every indentation of muscle on his back like a waterfall along particularly shapely rocks.

How many of her friend’s erections had Gou seen in the past few days? Three? Makoto’s was particularly memorable, for some reason. Maybe it was because it was clear and evident and obvious like a flag pole or something.

Gou tried to turn away, but really, she couldn’t. (Her inner Nagisa voice said that nobody would blame her for looking, nobody at all.)

It was Makoto’s expression that troubled her, though. Even while he seemed to be enjoying himself totally and abandoning his body to the rocking motions of his hand, his face was a strange mix of exhilaration and sadness. That slight hint of melancholy in Makoto’s expression never really went away -- it was worse when he was touching himself. 

Why?

Suddenly all of the strong muscles of Makoto’s legs and back tightened, and he lifted his face to the shower head, his mouth opened up to gasp in the water running from the nozzle. There was a word on his lips, a name...but Gou couldn’t hear it over the sound of the running water. In fact, Gou was pretty sure she was glad she couldn’t hear it. If it was the word she imagined, it would probably break her heart into bits.

A moment later, Makoto -- … and it was beautiful, especially without any of the pixelation or vague splotches of grey that appeared in that one manga.

Feeling overheated inside and out, Gou turned as silently as she could and headed back to the office to wait.

~

“Ah, you waited for me?” Makoto still had the towel over his head, and he was back to being relaxed and cheerful. “Thanks for the extra laps. It really got out a lot of exam stress.”

“Ah,” Gou coughed, “I’m sure it was the laps that did it.” She paused, sorting her thoughts, and then let it all out in a rush. 

“Anyway. I’ve been wanting to talk to you, alone. My brother thinks that you’re going to traumatize yourself by holding an ocean-side swim camp again. He thinks you’re just doing it for Haruka-senpai, and forcing yourself when you shouldn’t be. Is he right?” 

Makoto just blinked, then sat on the bench with a sigh, hiding his face under the towel. “Hmmm. It’s nice of Rin to worry about me. And despite what he thinks, I’m really not doing it for Haru. In fact… I think I need to talk to him about that. About Haru. Because he’s got it wrong.”

“He...does?”

Makoto simply nodded. “I suspected that something like this would happen eventually,” he sighed.

“...Are we still talking about swimming?”

Makoto blinked up from under the towel, and suddenly he was grinning. “Haru and swimming are the same thing, aren’t they?”

“They totally are!”

After a long moment of giggling together, Gou calmed down a bit and sighed. “Makoto-senpai, what should I do? I want to spend more time with a certain person, but it seems impossible for various reasons.” 

Makoto looked at her for a long moment, and then nodded firmly.

“Tomorrow we have a day off practice, right? Tonight it’s time for me to have a talk with Rin, and when I do, I’ll make sure to put in a word for you, too.”

“You will?” Gou blinked. What would Makoto talk to Rin about?

Makoto stood, fishing his brand-new phone out of his pocket. “After school tomorrow, wait by the school gate.”


	3. Sweet shoujo kisses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gou finally gets her date. Also, the promised RINHARURINHARURINHARU. (Warning: Makoto angst.)
> 
> ~
> 
> _“Gou-chan! May I call you Gou-chan, by the way?” Mikoshiba couldn’t help it and reached out to smooth one of Gou’s stray locks away from her face._  
>     
>  _“Of course you --”_
> 
> _Just then, Rin stepped out from where he’d been standing behind Mikoshiba._
> 
> _“Cannot. I prefer it if you call her ‘Matsuoka-kun.’ And get your hands off her hair.”_

It was another one of those conversations Gou wasn’t supposed to hear. She cursed the Iwatobi storage closet for so conveniently hiding her from view, and she cursed her teammates for choosing the office for their more intimate discussions, especially when she was simply sorting out the backlogged receipts like a good manager.

This conversation sucked, though, and it left Gou crouching in a little ball hugging her knees.

“But, how about you?” Came the words from the office.

“What about me, Haru?”

“You just told me something. And you rejected yourself already. Aren’t you going to give me a chance to --”

“No. No, I’m not.”

“Makoto. It’s not that I don’t --”

“Haru, I know you better than anyone else, right?”

“...”

“So listen to me. Go after him. He thinks he can’t like you because he’s ‘straight,’ but I’ve known it since we were kids.”

“Makoto. You’re crying. You never cry.”

“Haru, don’t…”

Silence, and the sound of rustling, as if someone was giving someone else a hug.

Gou felt like she needed one too, after that conversation, so she picked up an Iwatobi-chan and cradled it against her cheek.

“...It doesn’t mean I don’t feel for you. Makoto.”

“I know, Haru. Just...give me a week or two.”

“No. Only a week. That’s all I can spare you for. Are you sure about this?”

“No. I’m not. If he doesn’t...doesn’t take care of you, I’m going to --”

Okay, enough was enough. Gou stood up, burst out of the storage room, and headed straight for the bench. She wrapped her arms around both Haru and Makoto (who were next to each other, Haru’s arm over Makoto’s shoulder), and gave them both an enormous hug.

“Eh -- Kou-chan?”

“-- Kou?”

But before they could react much more, she grabbed her book bag and ran out the door.

If only there were such things as normal, working, gay threesomes, she thought to herself unhappily. Makoto was way too nice to not have everything he wanted, and the fact that the other guy was her brother did nothing to resolve her sorrow. During her afternoon math class, she doodled stick figures in threes, hugging, kissing, and holding hands. 

~

Later that day, as soon as the school bell rang, Gou headed for the front gate, wondering what she’d see.

What she saw was almost like a dream. Gou paused mid-stride, hand unconsciously moving to cover her face, because her sudden blush was hot across her cheeks.

There, at the gates to the school, stood a tall, strong figure in a white gakuran. His hands were in his pockets, and he was scanning the crowd. His height would’ve made him stand out anywhere, but the bright red hair made him an instant topic of conversation.

“Hey look, it’s a guy from Samezuka. Wonder if that’s his natural hair color? Nah, couldn’t be, it’s SO BRIGHT. He’s cute, though. Wonder if he’s got a girlfriend here?”

Mikoshiba’s eyes met hers, and his hand instantly shot up in the air to wave to her, his smile blossoming like light through clouds.

Ahhh, Gou’s heart was fluttering so hard that she couldn’t stop her own smile, and she ran the rest of the way to meet him.

“Ah, so this is what Makoto-senpai meant,” Gou said, smiling as she came to a stop in front of him. “I need to thank him.”

“Gou-chan! May I call you Gou-chan, by the way?” Mikoshiba couldn’t help it and reached out to smooth one of Gou’s stray locks away from her face.

“Of course you --”

And just then, Gou’s brother stepped out from where he’d been standing behind Mikoshiba.

“Cannot. I prefer it if you call her ‘Matsuoka-kun.’ And get your hands off her hair.”

“What -- Brother! Why are you here?!” Gou stared at him in complete dismay, her dream broken, only to be met by a pair of annoyed eyes.

“Where else would I be? Makoto said that you two would be meeting for a date, so I’m the chaperone.”

“Date?” Gou blushed again, hands flying up to her cheeks, only to hear Mikoshiba’s laughter.

“Matsuoka, you have absolutely no sensitivity, do you?” Mikoshiba said, and then leaned closer to Gou. “Gou-chan. I’m sorry it has to be this way, but would you go on a date with me today? Even if your brother is with us, I’m still happy to spend time with --”

“I’ll take care of him.” A calm voice cut through Mikoshiba’s words, and Gou looked up to see Haru standing in front of Rin, his chin tipped up in challenge. Haru’s eyes were red-rimmed, but he looked calm otherwise. Gou wondered how the rest of his conversation with Makoto went. “Rin. Are you really here as a chaperone?”

“Of course I -- that is -- Haru, why are you --”

Haru watched him as he spluttered, but finally Rin’s fingers drifted up into his hair and he turned his gaze sideways, cheeks growing pinker by the minute. “Fine. I’m here...I’m here because Makoto said I should talk to you.”

“Do you have something to say to me?”

“Right here, in front of the whole world?” Rin said, crossing his arms and glowering.

Haru just looked at him.

Gou gripped Mikoshiba’s sleeve and stepped back, tugging him with her. “I can’t listen to this,” she whispered to him. “My brother is such an idiot that I’ll have nightmares for a month if he messes this up. Especially after...Makoto-senpai...”

Mikoshiba laughed, and turned with her, ambling to the other side of the stone gatepost. “Honestly. Those two want the same thing so badly that it’s ridiculous to see them stumbling toward it. I’m glad Tachibana set things in motion. But, anyway, what would you like to do today?” Mikoshiba tilted his head to look at the sky and the bay. “The weather’s good. We could go to the park?”

Gou’s cheeks were still a bit pink. “S-so, this really is a date?” She couldn’t quite meet Mikoshiba’s eyes just then. It felt embarrassing and good all at once, but she couldn’t quite handle the fact that so many people were involved. “Even if Haruka-senpai and my brother are here too?”

“Gou-chan.” Mikoshiba reached up and gently touched a lock of hair, tugging it. “I’m not here because Tachibana suggested it. I’m here because it was an opportunity to see you that I didn’t wanna miss. But. I should ask properly, instead of assuming, right? Gou-chan, will you go out on a date with me today?”

“Just to get it clear in my head, does that mean that you…”

From the other side of the gatepost, Rin’s voice rose and broke in.

“LIKE me, Haru? And you don’t mean, in the same way you like mackerel or that one brand of jammers…”

Gou bit her lip, but she couldn’t contain her laughter. “You know what? I think we should all go do something together. My brother is the one that needs a chaperone, or he’s going to make Haru-senpai hate him…”

Mikoshiba laughed with her, but she caught his sigh as they turned. His expression was a little wry, but that quickly changed.

“We’d better cut in before they punch each other.”

Haru’s fist had a firm grip of Rin’s jacket collar, and the two of them appeared to be snarling at each other from half a foot away.

“You’re a total idiot. Makoto was wrong.” Haru said, more expression on his face than Gou had seen in a long time. 

“I’m not the idiot here. Why is it that Makoto of all people had to tell you what to do? And why are you saying some other man’s name when we should be talking about US?”

“What US is there to --”

“Ahhh -- excuse me, Haruka-senpai. But Mikoshiba-buchou and I are going to the swimwear store so that I can watch him try on long jammers. If you two are coming, I suggest you come now, although I’m sure Mikoshiba-buchou wouldn’t mind if he modeled for me alone?”

Gou made her voice as innocent as possible, but she suddenly had Rin’s complete attention.

“We … are? Ah...right,” Mikoshiba said, clearing his throat. “I need other supplies too, so it’ll be good to have you carry them, Matsuoka.”

“Come on.” Rin said, frowning, pushing Haru’s fingers away from his coat collar and turning. “Let’s go.”

They headed down the street in an awkward foursome, Haru on the far side of Mikoshiba, Rin on the far side of Gou.

It seemed like an eternal walk of silence before they got to the store.

Haru perked up when they entered and immediately disappeared into the knee-length jammer section. After a moment, Rin disappeared too, in the other direction. 

Finally by themselves, Mikoshiba turned to Gou, his expression full of teasing. “So, do you really not like me in the Speedos? Was all that waxing for nothing? I guess I should be glad that you were watching me that closely.”

Gou immediately blushed, but decided from her brother’s bad example that she wasn’t going to lie. “I can’t say that I don’t like it. But I thought it would be interesting to see you in a different look.” She met his eyes with a tiny smile. “After all, you’ve seen ME in a swim suit.”

Mikoshiba’s eyes widened a little and he also blushed, which looked so cute on such a tall boy that Gou had to stop herself from touching his cheek. “That’s a good point,” Mikoshiba said. “Let me go get a few in my size.”

Gou stationed herself in her usual chair outside of the changing room. From there, she watched Rin walk by carrying something small. Was he trying on Speedos too? After Rin disappeared into a changing room, Gou saw Haru walk past with three pairs of what looked like the same suit.

Haru’s expression was ever so faintly troubled, and his eyes looked a little bleak.

No, Haru should never have to look that way, especially because of her idiot brother. Gou stood. “Ah, Haruka-senpai, I think that one’s free.” Gou pointed at the closed curtain that coincidentally had Rin behind it.

“Oh. Thanks.” Haru headed in.

A second later, Gou heard the inevitable explosion of noise.

“HARU!”

“... That suit is very, very small, Rin. But you can pull it off. Or should I?”

“What?! Who asked your opinion! And why are you in here any --”

“I’m here to get your answer.”

“NOW?”

“We’re alone, aren’t we?”

“Well -- but -- no, we’re in the middle of a store!”

“Nobody’s listening.”

“Why are you getting so close, anyway --”

“Put your hand down. Let me…”

“Haru … ka … mmmmf.”

If Gou tilted her head sideways and peeked under the edge of the curtain, she could see four feet very, very close to each other. After a silence ...

“Rin. Let’s do that again.”

“...”

The silence was like a profound blessing. Gou smiled as she listened to it, thinking that yes or no made no difference just then, in the face of whatever Haru was doing to Rin.

Finally, a grumpy voice. “Will you at least let me put my clothes back on?”

“You’re no fun.”

“Who’s calling who no fun --! I don’t believe I invited you in --”

Mikoshiba showed up at Gou’s elbow holding a pile of suits, but Gou realized that they suddenly had a perfect opportunity to escape. 

She neatly transferred the suits from Mikoshiba’s arms to the return racks, grabbed his hand, and ran.

~

They sat at a table in the ice cream shop snickering like naughty children.

“I wonder if Matsuoka has forgotten about us already,” Mikoshiba mused. “I haven’t had any texts, and neither have you.”

“Right? I think Haruka-senpai has something to do with that. With any luck he took my brother's phone and turned it off.”

They both grinned at each other, sharing their glee.

“I didn’t know you had this kind of streak, Gou-chan. You’re just a little evil, like Matsuoka.”

“And you too -- running away from them with me! But I can totally see you being an overly energetic little boy, troubling your mother all the time!” Gou's smile was teasing. It was shockingly easy to fall into this conversation with him, teasing him like she'd known him a long time.

“Aw, how can you say that? I was such a good kid. Although, granted, before they threw me into a pool, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I broke everything! When they saw me using my father’s chair as a vault, they decided it was time to get me into a competitive sport.”

Gou laughed, imagining a little redheaded boy racing around his house breaking furniture. “I bet you were so adorable they couldn’t kill you.”

“Ah?” Mikoshiba looked up, his eyes growing suddenly softer. “And you don’t think I am now?”

Gou held still, meeting his eyes, noticing that his expression was so soft she wasn’t sure what to say at all. She felt flustered, but saw his grin widen.

“You’re finally at a loss for words? I never expected that your blush would be this cute.”

Reaching across the table, Mikoshiba very carefully trapped her hand beneath his large one, tracing the top of it with his fingers before enclosing it in his warm grasp.

Ugh. Gou’s heartbeat was so loud she was sure he could hear it. Her hand felt so tingly...

“Can you really eat with your left hand?” She finally asked, feeling totally lame.

“Absolutely.” 

Ten minutes of ice cream and a warm, tingly hand later Gou got the first annoyed text from an overprotective brother, but Mikoshiba didn’t let go of her hand, not even when Haru and Rin showed up at the shop.

Haru looked totally normal, but Rin looked like a mess, eyes red from what had to be tears, hair everywhere, and lips bruised.

Ah, wait, Haru had a pointy-toothed bite on his neck, one that he wasn’t even bothering to hide.

“Vanilla.” Haru said.

“You’re so boring. Why don’t you try Rum or maybe Espresso for a change? I swear, you’re never going to know about anything unless you try stuff.”

“Quiet. You’re annoying.”

“JUST TRY IT, or are you SCARED?”

“...I’ll try it, just shut up!”

Gou laughed, shaking her head. But the interaction brought back Makoto’s words. Was it because of this that Makoto had backed down? Knowing that Rin would push Haru out of his quiet life and into something more?

When Rin sat at their table with two scoops of Espresso, he finally noticed Mikoshiba’s hand around Gou’s, and his eyes narrowed as he reached for his spoon. “Hands off my sister!”

“Why? You don’t need my hand to bite Nanase’s neck again.”

The next half hour was the longest ice cream and bickering session of Gou’s life. She felt profoundly relieved when they finally left and walked Rin and Mikoshiba back to the train station.

“Gou-chan, it was somehow a pleasure to be with you despite your brother. Maybe we can meet again next weekend? There’s a festival, and it would be fun to go with -- .”

“Yes!” Gou cut in before Rin could say anything else. “I’ll text you for where to meet.” She smiled brightly.

Looking down at Gou’s expression, Mikoshiba felt his breath catching in his throat. Gou was surely the cutest girl on the planet, especially with that smile, and those bright eyes… And that brother, glaring at him and making him pause the second before Mikoshiba could lean down to kiss her forehead.

“I -- I’ll text. See you next week, Gou-chan!”

Haru’s farewell to Rin was briefer than that.

“I’ll see you tomorrow night.” Blank stare.

“Keep your door unlocked.” Return glower.

Hypocrites, Gou thought, sighing inside. Who knew what they’d be up to later, when she couldn’t so much as hold hands without Rin freaking out?

Standing and watching the train pull away, Gou turned her head to see something tiny and mysterious tugging the corners of Haru’s mouth.

Was it...a smile?

~

Gou floated through her week.

Now that Mikoshiba had her number, he seemed to take great delight in sending photos. He didn’t send many photos of himself, but he did send pictures of food, and pretty things that he thought Gou might like, and embarrassing photos of Rin and Nitori.

At lunch one day Gou laughed so hard at one photo of her brother that Nagisa crowded close to peer into her phone.

“Oh my God! What’s all over Rin-chan?”

“Mikoshiba-buchou said that he had a container of green frosting and pretended it was a new brand of sunblock. He made Nitori-kun spread it all over my brother…”

Haru looked up at the mention of Rin. “I want to see that.”

Gou turned her phone and showed him, watching his expression shift ever so slightly into amused. “Tell him that it’s a good look on him.”

She sent the message off, and instantly had one from her brother. 

[GOU. DO NOT SHARE THOSE PHOTOS FROM BUCHOU WITH HARU OR I SWEAR I WILL NEVER LET YOU ALONE WITH BUCHOU AGAIN.]

[Whatever. I’ve only held hands but Haruka-senpai’s hickey keeps getting darker.]

[...Fine, what do you want? I’ll give you my next allowance if you delete those.]

[No, it’s more fun to tease you.]

[PLEASE -- ! I BEG YOU.]

Laughing again because it was so nice to make her brother flustered, Gou noticed another text ping into her phone. This one was from Mikoshiba, and it was a photo, clearly taken by someone shorter. Nitori, perhaps. It was a full-body shot of Mikoshiba in a pair of new jammers. They weren’t his usual speedos, but they were full-length like Makoto’s, black with white and red details.

Mikoshiba was smiling and striking a silly pose, but it did nothing to mitigate the long, gleaming black legs rising up to taut hips and well-defined obliques. There were small traces of the green frosting on his chest and hips and arms, as if maybe Rin had tried to beat him up for pulling such a stunt.

[Like them? I went back and got them.]

Gou just stared, and then flopped back onto the hot cement of the roof.

“I hate life.”

“Kou? Are you okay?” Haru leaned over her, putting a hand on her head. “Your face is warm.”

“No, I’m not okay. I finally have a boyfriend who looks like this, but nobody will let him do more than hold my hand.” Gou turned the phone and showed Haru the photo.

Haru looked at it, tilting his head. “Ah. I never liked longer ones. Harder to feel the water that way.”

“That’s not the point.” Gou sighed. “Never mind.”

The problem was, the most reasonably person on the swim team wasn’t there. Makoto had been away all week on a family trip, or so he told everyone. Gou wondered if they’d taken him away from town to cheer him up a little.

She missed him, though, and she knew Haru did too.

“When is Makoto-senpai back?”

“Saturday.” Haru sighed. “I want it to be normal again.”

“I think it will be. I believe in Makoto-senpai’s friendship with you. He won’t let that go away for anything.”

Haru bent his head to his knees, hiding his face for a moment.

“I-is it worth it, though? Being with my brother like that.”

“Ah. … Yes. It is.” Looking up, Gou saw Haru’s expression again, and that very faint smile.

~

The day of the festival came, and Gou carefully trod the road near the bay in her geta, feeling the coolness and constraints of the different cloth of the yukata wrapping her body. She was in a summer print of violet cotton to contrast with her hair, all patterned with darker indigo goldfish. Her hair was up in a bun, and loose strands wrapped around her neck.

She felt a little weird in a yukata, but when she glanced up to see Mikoshiba walking toward her, she was suddenly glad she’d taken the trouble.

Mikoshiba’s eyes immediately widened as though he was seeing something he’d never seen before, and his cheeks turned a bright and cute pink. Mikoshiba looked so flustered that Gou laughed.

“I’m surprised that my brother didn’t somehow join you,” she said.

“I told him to go spend the night with Nanase. Somehow he let himself be bribed.”

Gou sighed again, and then smiled when Mikoshiba caught her hand. “What is it? You look a little troubled.”

“Ah -- I -- it… it’s something weird that’s been going through my head recently. It’ll take a moment to explain, and … I feel a little shy talking about it to… to my boyfriend.”

“I like the sound of ‘boyfriend,’” Mikoshiba said, grinning at her sideways. “But what is it? I promise I’ll listen.”

They walked hand-in-hand through the bright tents and happy games, heading toward the high overlook that gave a view of the bay. A few couples were there already, watching the sun set over the water.

At a secluded spot on the railing, Gou leaned out, staring into the distance where her father’s ship lay under the water. 

Gou bent her head for a moment, putting her hands together and sending out a thought to him.

“Papa,” she said, “This is Mikoshiba Seijuurou-san -- he’s my boyfriend.”

“Eh?” Mikoshiba said, blinking, and then, when his memory caught up to him, “Ahh.” Bowing formally toward the sea, he said, “Pleased to meet you, Matsuoka-san. I will take good care of your daughter, and your son, too.”

They turned toward each other again, both smiling, and before Gou knew it, her hand was on Mikoshiba’s cheek.

...He was too tall. 

Gou laughed and gripped his collar, listening to his startled intake of breath. She tugged him down a little, and then a little more.

“Don’t look, papa.” Then her lips were on his chin. Hm.

“Ah!” Gathering Gou into his arms, Mikoshiba lifted her up against him and grinned at her. “Better?”

All those muscles held her easily, and Gou was very, very aware of their flex and solidity. She looked at Mikoshiba from this close range, and noticed that his expression was now a little more serious, and just a hint shy.

Gou wrapped her arms around his shoulders, brought her lips to his, and _kissed_ him... 

It was so sweet and good that the whole world faded.

Eventually they pulled back, although he didn’t put her down. Mikoshiba’s cheeks were red and his voice husky, but he cleared his throat. “You -- You smell like a lotus. I don’t think I’ll look at that flower in the same way again. But...what was it you wanted to say?”

Gou thought back through the past few weeks. The yaoi, the accidentally observed handjobs, the unfairness of being a girl amid a bunch of gay swimmers, and whether she’d be allowed to go very far without getting married first. 

None of it mattered now that Mikoshiba was there with her, and sex mattered so much less than the feeling she had right at this moment.

“You know what? Never mind. I like what we’re doing much better.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the sequel lives over here:
> 
> _[Lotus in bloom](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1410391) _


End file.
